"For since Christ is the true Sun and the true Day, as the sun and the day of the world recede, when we pray and petition that the light come upon us again, we pray for the coming of Christ to provide us with the grace of eternal light. Moreover, the Holy Spirit in the psalms declares that Christ is called the Day. He says: The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing; it is wonderful in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord has made; let us exult and rejoice therein (Ps. 118:22-24). Likewise Malachias the prophet testifies that He is called the Sun when He says: But unto you that fear my name, the Sun of justice shall arise, and healing is in His wings (Mal. 3:20). But if in holy Scripture Christ is the true Sun and the true Day, no hour is excepted for Christians, in which God should be adored frequently and always, so that we who are in Christ, that is, in, the true Sun and in the true Day, should be insistent throughout the whole day in our petitions and should pray; and when, by the law of the world, the revolving night, recurring in its alternate changes, succeeds, there can be no harm from the nocturnal shades for those who pray, because to the sons of light even in the night there is day. For when is he without light who has light in his heart? Or when does he not have sun and day, to whom Christ is Sun and Day?" (Text: CSEL 3, 1.292=FOTC 36.158).

"Moreover, let us who are always in Christ, that is, in the light, not cease praying even in the night. Let us, most beloved brethren, who are always in the light of the Lord, who remember and retain what we have begun to be after receiving grace compute the night as day. Let us believe that we walk always in the light (cf. 1 Jn. 1:7); let us not be hindered by the darkness which we have escaped; let there be no loss of prayers in the hours of the night, no slothful or neglectful waste of opportunities for prayer. Let us who by the indulgence of God have been recreated spiritually and reborn imitate what we are destined to be; let us who in the kingdom will have day alone without the intervention of night be just as alert at night as in the day; let us who are destined to pray always and to give thanks to God, not cease here also to pray and to give thanks" (Text: CSEL 3, 1.294=FOTC 36.159).

God, who created time, gave it the periods of the days as measures and signs, and, measuring it by the week, He established that the week, returning always upon itself (ana-kuklousthai) should mark the measure of time. And the week itself constitutes one single day, returning seven times on itself. Here is the form of the cycle, which has its beginning and end in itself. Now the property of the aeon is to return on itself and never to end. This is why the principle of time is called not the first day, but one day, so as to indicate, by its name, its relationship with the aeon. Having the characteristics of oneness and of incommunicability, it is properly and fittingly called one. (PG 29.59).

The Day of the Lord (hemera Kyriou) is great and celebrated (cf. Joel 2:1). Scripture knows this day without evening, without succession, without end; the Psalmist calls it also the eighth day because it is outside of this time of seven days. Whether you call it day or age, the sense is the same. If this state is called day, it is one (mid) and not multiple; if it is called aeon, it is alone (monakos) and not part of a whole (pollostos). To raise our spirit toward the future life. (Moses) called one the image of the aeon, the first-fruits of days, the contemporary of the light, the holy Lord's Day (kyriake) honored by the resurrection of the Lord (kyrios; PG 29.52).

We think that season means the changes of the periods of time — winter, spring, summer, and autumn — which, due to the regularity of the movement of the luminaries, are made to pass by us periodically. It is winter when the sun tarries in the southern parts and produces much night shadow in the region about us, so that the air above the earth is chilled and all the damp exhalations, gathering around us, provide a source for rains and frosts and indescribably great snows. Afterwards, returning again from the southern regions, it arrives in the center, so that it divides the time equally between night and day, and the longer it tarries in the places above the earth, much milder a climate does it bring back in turn. Then comes spring, which causes all plants to bud, brings returning life to most trees, and preserves the species for all land and water animals by a series of births. And now, the sun, moving thence toward the summer solstice in a northerly direction, offers us the longest days. And, because it travels through the air a very great distance, it parches the very air above our heads and dries up all the land, aiding in this way the seeds to mature and hurrying the fruits of the trees to ripeness. When the sun is most fiery hot, it causes very short shadows at midday because it shines upon our region directly from above. Those days are longest in which the shadows are shortest, and again, the shortest days are those which have the longest shadows. This is so for us who are called Heteroscians (Shadowed-on-one-side), who inhabit the northern part of the earth. Yet, there are some who for two days of every year are entirely shadowless at midday, upon whom the sun, shining from the zenith, pours equal light from all sides, so that it even lights up the water in the depth of the wells through narrow apertures. Consequently, some call them Ascians (Shadowless). But, those beyond the spice-bearing land have shadows that change from one side to the other. They are the only inhabitants in this world who cast shadows to the south at midday; whence some call them Amphiscians (Shadowed-on-both-sides). All these phenomena happen when the sun has already passed across to the northern regions. From them it is possible to conjecture the intensity of the burning heat which exists in the air from the solar beam, and what effects it produces. The season of autumn, welcoming us in turn from summer, breaks the excessive stifling heat and, gradually lessening it, by its moderate temperature leads us unharmed out of itself into winter, that is to say, while the sun again turns back from the northerly regions to the southern. These changes of the seasons, which follow the movements of the sun, govern our lives.

Let them serve, He says, for the fixing of days (Gen. 1:14), not for making days, but for ruling the days. For, day and night are earlier than the generation of the luminaries. This the psalm declares to us when it says: He placed the sun to rule the day, the moon and stars to rule the night (Ps. 136:8). How does the sun rule the day? Because, whenever the sun, carrying the light around with it, rises above our horizon, it puts an end to the darkness and brings us the day. Therefore, one would not err if he would define the day as air, lighted by the sun, or as the measure of time in which the sun tarries in the hemisphere above the earth. But, the sun and the moon were appointed to be for the years. The moon, when it has completed its course twelve times, measures a year, except that it frequently needs an intercalary month for the accurate determination of the seasons, as the Hebrews and the most ancient of the Greeks formerly measured the year. The solar year is the return of the sun from a certain sign to that same sign in its regular revolutions....

May He who has granted us intelligence to learn of the great wisdom of the Creator from the most trivial objects of creation permit us to receive loftier concepts of the Creator from the mightly objects of creation. And yet in comparison with the Creator, the sun and moon possess the reason of an ant or gnat. Truly it is not possible to attain a worthy view of the God of the universe from these things; we can only be led on by them, as also by each of the tiniest of plants or animals to some vague and faint impression of Him. (PG 29.117-148=FOTC 46.95.103).

Every day is the Lord's Day ... therefore Christians eat the flesh of the Lamb daily: they consume each day the flesh of the Word, for Christ our passover has been sacrificed (I Cor. 5:7). He was sacrificed on the evening of the Day of Preparation, in keeping with the law of the Pasch, which was eaten in the evening, — in the evening of the world that you might nourish yourselves on the flesh of His Word, you who are always evening until the morning comes ... In the evening weeping shall have place and in the morning gladness (Ps. 30:6): so, too, you shall rejoice and be glad in the morning, that is in the world to come (Origen, On Genesis, Hom. X).

The Lord came in the evening of the declining world and near the end of its appointed course, but at His coming, since He Himself is the Sun of Righteousness (Mal. 4:2), He restored a new day for those who believe. Because, therefore, a new light of knowledge arose in the world, in a certain manner, He made His own day in the morning, and, as it were, the Sun of Righteousness brought forth its own morning, and in this morning those who receive His precepts are filled with bread (Origen, On Exodus, Hom. VII).

Others, whose names were given to me by an informer, admitted the charge of being Christian at first, but later on denied it, saying that they had ceased to be Christian two or more years previously, and some as long as twenty years before. To your statue, and to the images of the gods in the same way, they all did reverence, and they all reviled the name of Christ. They also confessed the sum total of their guilt in this way: on a fixed day, before dawn, they met regularly to chant verses alternately among themselves in honor of Christ, as if He were a God; and also to bind themselves by oath, not for any criminal purpose, but rather to abstain from robbery, theft and adultery, from violating any breach of trust, especially a deposit when called upon to restore it. After this ceremony they usually dispersed but reassembled later to take food of an ordinary harmless kind. This practice, in fact, they had given up after my edict (issued on your instructions), which banned all political assemblies. This decision made me all the more extract by torture from two serving women, whom they call deaconesses, a confession I found nothing but a degenerate sort of a cult carried out to extravagant lengths (BK.X. ep.XCVI.5-8).

Do not be led astray by wrong views or by outmoded fables that count for nothing. For if we go on observing Jewish rites we admit we never received grace. The divine prophets themselves lived Christ Jesus' way. That is why they were persecuted, for they were inspired by His grace to convince unbelievers that God is one, and that He has revealed Himself in His Son Jesus Christ, who is His Word proceeding from silence and who was pleasing in all things to Him who sent Him.

Those, then, who lived by ancient practices arrived at a new hope. They ceased to keep the Sabbath but lived by the Lord's Day, on which our life as well as theirs shone forth, thanks to Him and His death, though some deny this. Through this mystery we got our faith, and because of it we stand our ground so as to become disciples of Jesus Christ, our sole teacher. How, then, can we live without Him when even the prophets, who were His disciples by the Spirit, awaited Him as heir teacher? He, then, whom they were expecting, raised them from the dead, when He came.

We must not, then, be impervious to His kindness. Indeed were He to act as we do, we should at once be done for. Hence' now we are His disciples, we must learn to live like Christians — to be sure — whoever bears any other name does not belong to God. Get rid, then, of the bad leaven — it has grown stale and sour — and be changed into new leaven, that is, into Jesus Christ. Be salted in Him, so that none of you go bad, for your smell will give you away. It is out of place to talk Jesus Christ and to practice Judaism. For Christianity did not believe in Judaism, but Judaism in Christianity. People of every tongue have come to believe in it, and so been united together in God. (SC 10.87).

As for Jewish scruples with respect to food, along with their superstition about the Sabbath, their bragging about circumcision and their hypocrisy about fast days and feasts of new moons I hardly think that you need to be told by me that all these things are ridiculous, and not worth arguing about. How can it be anything but godlessness that makes me accept some of the things made by God for man's use as created good and reject other things as useless and superfluous? And is it not impious to pretend that God forbids a good deed on the Sabbath day? And are they not asking for ridicule when they boast of the mutilation of the flesh as a sign of their being chosen by God, as if for this reason they were especially beloved by him? Again when they constantly gaze at the stars and watch the moon, in order to observe months and days with scrupulous care and to distinguish the changes of the seasons which God has ordained, in order to cater to their own whims, making some into festivals, and others into times of fasting, who could call this evidence of religion rather than of folly? All this being so, I think that you have learned enough to see that Christians are right in holding themselves aloof from the silliness and trickery of Greeks and Jews alike, and from the fficiousness and noisy conceit of the Jews. But as far as the mystery of the Christians' own religion is concerned, you cannot expect to learn that fully from man. (SC 33.60).

Furthermore, it is also written concerning the Sabbath in the decalogue ... sanctify also the Sabbath of the Lord with pure hands and a pure heart (Exod. 20:8) ... and ... if my sons keep the Sabbath, I will have mercy upon them (Jer. 17:24). Now concerning this Sabbath He speaks at the beginning of creation ... and He rested on the seventh day (Gen. 2:2). This means that when this Son will come and destroy the time of the lawless one and judge the godless, and change the sun and the moon and the stars, then He shall indeed rest on the seventh day. Furthermore He says: thou shalt keep it holy with pure hands and a pure heart (Exod. 20:8). If, then, anyone is able in the here and now to hallow the ay which God sanctified, by being pure in heart, we are completely deceived: know that we cannot sanctify it until that jme when we shall enjoy true repose; when we shall be able to so simply because we have been made just ourselves and shall have received the promise, when there is no more sin, but all things have been made new by the Lord; then we shall be able to sanctify it, having been made holy ourselves. Furthermore, He says to them: I will not abide your new moons and your Sabbaths (Isa. 1:13). You see what He means: the present Sabbaths are not acceptable to me, but that Sabbath which I have made, in which, after giving rest to all things, I will make the beginning of another world. Therefore, we also celebrate with joy the eighth day on which Jesus also arose from the dead, was made manifest, and ascended into heaven. (SC 172.182).

It follows accordingly, that, in so far as the abolition of carnal circumcision and of the old law is demonstrated as having been consummated at its specific times, so also the observance of the Sabbath is demonstrated to have been temporary.

For the Jews say, that from the beginning God sanctified the seventh day, by resting on it from all His works which He made; and that thence it was, likewise, that Moses said to the People: Remember the day of the Sabbath, to sanctify it (Ex. 20:8): every servile work ye shall not do therein, except what pertaineth unto life (Ex. 12:16). Whence we (Christians) understand that we still more ought to observe a Sabbath from all "servile work" always, and not only every seventh day, but through all time. And through it arises the question for us, what Sabbath God willed us to keep? For the Scripture points to a Sabbath eternal and a Sabbath temporal. For Isaiah the prophet says, Your Sabbaths my son hatted (Isa. 1:13), and in another place is said My Sabbaths ye have profaned (Ez. 22:8). Whence we discern that the temporal Sabbath is human, and the eternal Sabbath is accounted divine; concerning which He predicts through Isaiah: And there shall be. He says, month after month, and day after day, and Sabbath after Sabbath; and all flesh shall come to adore in Jerusalem, said the Lord, which we understand to have been fulfilled in the times of Christ, when 'all flesh' — that is, every nation — 'came to adore in Jerusalem' God the Father, through Jesus Christ His Son, as was predicted through the prophet: Behold your God, cities of Judah (Isa. 40:9). Thus, therefore, before this temporal Sabbath, there was withal an eternal Sabbath foreshown and foretold; just as before the carnal circumcision there was withal a spiritual circumcision foreshown. In short, let them teach us, as we have already premised, that Adam observed the Sabbath; or that Abel, when offering to God a Holy victim, pleased Him by a religious reverence for the Sabbath; or that Enoch, when translated had been a keeper of the Sabbath; or that Noah the ark-builder observed on account of the deluge an immense Sabbath; or that Abraham in observance of the Sabbath, offered Isaac his son: or that Melchizedek in his priesthood received the law of the Sabbath.

But the Jews are sure to say that, ever since this precept was given through Moses, the observance has been binding. Manifest accordingly it is, that the precept was not eternal nor spiritual, but temporary, which would one day cease. In short, so true is it that that it is not in the exemption from work the Sabbath — that is, of the seventh day — that the celebration of this solemnity is to consist, that Joshua the son of Nun, at the time that he was reducing the city Jericho by war stated that he city received from God seven days, making the circuit of the city; and thus, when the seventh day's circuit had been performed, the walls of the city would spontaneously fall (cf. Josh. 6:1-20). Which was so done; and when the space of the seventh day was finished, just as was predicted, down fell the walls of the city. Whence it is manifestly shown, that in the number of the seven days there intervened a Sabbath day. Whencesoever they may have commenced, must necessarily include within them a sabbath-day; on which day not only must the priests have worked but the city must have been made a prey by the edge of the sword by all the people of Israel. Nor is it doubtful that they wrought servile work (Ex. 12:16). When, in obedience to God's precept, they drove the preys of war. For in the times of the Maccabees, too, they did bravely in fighting on the Sabbaths, and routed their foreign foes, and recalled the law of the fathers to the primitive style of life by fighting on the Sabbaths. Nor should I think it was any other law which they thus vindicated than the one in which they remembered the existence of the prescript touching the day of the Sabbath (Ex. 20:8; Deut. 5:12-15).

Whence it is manifest that the force of such precepts was temporary, and respected the necessity of present circumstances; and that it was not with a view to its observance in perpetuity that God formerly gave them such a law. (PL 2.605 ANF 3.155).

Concerning the Sabbath I have this to say: the question could not have arisen if Christ had not publicly declared Himself to be Lord of the Sabbath.... Thus men wondered ... was it proper for Christ to proclaim the Creator to be God, and at the same time to impugn His Sabbath?... But let me say this: If Christ interfered with the Sabbath He simply acted after the Creator's example in as much as in the siege of Jericho the carrying of the Ark of the Covenant round the walls for eight days, including the Sabbath by the Creator's express command (cf. Josh. 6:14-15), broke the Sabbath by working — or so those people think who have the same opinion also of Christ, being unaware that neither did Christ break the Sabbath nor did the Creator as I shall shortly show. Even so, the Sabbath was on that occasion broken by Joshua so that this too might be taken as referring to Christ. Even if it was through hatred that He made an attack on the Jews' most solemn day because (as Marcion alleges) He was not the Jews' Christ, even by this hatred of the Sabbath He, the Creator's Christ, acknowledged that Creator, following up His cry made by the mouth of Isaiah: Your new moons and Sabbaths my soul hateth (Isa. 1:13). Now in whatever sense this was spoken we know that in circumstances of this kind a sharp reproof has to be put in action against a sharp provocation. Next I shall argue the case in reference to the actual subject in which Christ's rule of conduct has been thought to destroy the Sabbath. The disciples had been hungry; on that very day they had plucked the ears of corn and rubbed them in their hands: by preparing food they had made a breach in the holy day. Christ holds them guiltless and so becomes guilty of infringing the Sabbath: the Pharisees are His accusers. Marcion takes exception to the heads of the controversy — if I may play about a bit with the truth of my Lord — written document and intention. A plausible answer is based upon the Creator's written document and on Christ's intention, as by the precedent of David who on the Sabbath day entered into the temple and prepared food by boldly breaking up the loaves of the shewbread. For he, too, remembered that even from the beginning since the Sabbath day was first instituted, this privilege was granted to it. I make exception from fasting. For when the Creator forbade the gathering of two days' supply of manna, He allowed it only on the day before the Sabbath, so that by having food prepared the day before He might make immune from fasting the holy day of the Sabbath that followed. Well it is then that our Lord allowed the same Purpose in breaking down the Sabbath — if that is what they ant it called: well it is also that He gave effect to the Creator's mention by the privilege of not fasting on the Sabbath. In fact He would have once and for all broken the Sabbath, and the Creator besides, if He had enjoined His disciples to fast on the Sabbath, in opposition to the fact of Scripture and of the Creator's intention. So then, as He did not keep His disciples in close constraint, but now finds excuse for them; as He puts in answer human necessity as begging for considerate treatment: as He conserves the higher privilege of the Sabbath, of freedom from sorrow rather than abstention from work: as He associates David and his followers with His own disciples in fault and in permission: as He is in agreement with the relaxation the Creator has given: as after the Creator's example He Himself is equally kind: is He on that account an alien from the Creator? After that the Pharisees watch if He will heal a man on the Sabbath, that they might accuse Him — evidently (accuse him) as a breaker of the Sabbath, not as the setter forth of a strange god: for perhaps I shall everywhere insist on this point alone, that nowhere was there any prophecy of a different Christ. But the Pharisees were utterly in error about the law of the Sabbath, having failed to notice that it is under certain conditions that it enjoins abstention from works, under a specific aspect of them. For when it says of the Sabbath day, No work of thine shall thou do in it (Ex. 20:10), by saying thine it has made a ruling concerning that human work which any man perform by his craft or business, and not about divine work. But the work of healing or of rescue is not properly man's work but God's. So again in the law it says, In it thou shall do no manner of work, save that which is to be done for every soul (Ex. 12:16), that is, with the purpose of setting a soul free for the work of God can be done even by the agency of a man, for the saving of a soul, yet God is the doer of it: and this as man Christ also was going to do, because He is also God. Because of His desire to lead them towards this understanding of the law by the restoration of the withered hand, He asks them, Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath, or not? to set a soul free, or to destroy it? (Lk. 6:9): so that by giving approval to that sort of work which He purposed to do for the soul, He might give them warning of what works the law of the Sabbath forbade, human works, and what works it enjoined, divine works, which were to be done for every soul.

He called himself Lord of the Sabbath because He was protecting the Sabbath as belonging to Himself. Though even f He had broken it He would have had the right to do so as being its Lord, and even more so as He who instituted it. But He did not utterly destroy it in order that henceforth it might be clear that the Sabbath was not broken either by the Creator, even at a time when the Ark was carried around the walls of Jericho ... and although He has shown a certain distaste for Sabbaths in calling them your Sabbaths, elsewhere ... He has put His own Sabbath in a different light, ... declaring them to be 'true, and delightful and inviolable.' (PL 2.383=ANF 3.155).

On every Lord's Day — His special day — come together and break bread and give thanks, first confessing your sins so that your sacrifice may be pure. Anyone at variance with his neighbor must not join you, until they are reconciled, lest your sacrifice be defiled. For it was of this sacrifice that the Lord said, Always and everywhere offer me a pure sacrifice; for lam a great King, says the Lord, and my name is marveled at by the nations (Mal. 1:11; SC 248.192).

Those, then, who lived by ancient practices arrived at a new hope. They ceased to keep the Sabbath and lived by the Lord's Day, on which our life as well as theirs shone forth, thanks to Him and His death, though some deny this. Through this mystery we got our faith, and because of it we stand our ground so as to become disciples of Jesus Christ, our sole teacher. How, then, can we live without Him when even the prophets, who were His disciples by the Spirit, awaited Him as their teacher? He, then, whom they were rightly expecting, raised them from the dead, when He came. (SC 10.88).

Now then, whenever you teach, command and warn the people to be constant in coming to church ... lest any one diminish the Church by not assembling and cause the body of Christ to be short of a member. Let no one take thought of others only, but of himself as well, listening to that which our Lord said: Every one that gathereth not with me, scattereth (Mt. 12:30). Since therefore you are the members of Christ, do not scatter yourselves from the Church by not assembling. Seeing that you have Christ for your head, as He promised — for you are partakers with us — be not then neglectful of yourselves and do not then deprive our Savior of His members: do not rend and scatter His body by making your worldly affairs of more account than the word of God; but on the Lord's Day leave everything and run eagerly to your Church for she is your glory. Otherwise, how can you stand before God who do not assemble on the Lord's Day to hear the word of life and be nourished with the divine food which lasts forever? (Text R.H. Connolly, ed. 124).

Go often to church and to the holy places and pray to God: do not neglect the Lord's Day, but hold it in reverence, because on it the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, arose from the dead. Do not perform servile work on the Lord's Day in field or meadow or vineyard: ... cook only what is necessary to nourish the body ... do not journey on the Lord's Day ... except for a good purpose, such as walking to holy places, visiting a brother or a friend, consoling the sick, or carrying counsel or aid for a good cause to one in trouble. In this way the Christian should honor the Lord's Day. It is quite disgraceful that the pagans who do not know the faith of Christ but worship idols and demons, should honor the day of Jupiter or any other demon and abstain from work, when demons certainly never created and do not have any day. Yet we who worship the true God and believe that the Son of God rose from the dead, do not honor the day of the resurrection, the Lord's Day. Do not do wrong to the resurrection of the Lord, but honor it and hold it in reverence for the sake of the hope which we have in it. For just as He, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is our Head, rose from the dead on the third day, so, too, do we hope that we who are His members shall rise in our flesh at the end of the world. (PL 72.18=FOTC 62.84).

On the day of the resurrection of the Lord, which we call the Lord's Day, you must always come together to give thanks to God, and to bless Him for all the benefits which He has bestowed upon us through Christ by rescuing us from the bonds of ignorance and error: thus let your sacrifice be spotless and pleasing to God who to His universal Church said: In everyplace I am offered incense and a pure offering; for I am indeed a great King says the Lord God Almighty, and my name is wonderful among the nations (Mal. 1:11; ANF 7.470).

When you instruct the people, O bishop, command and exhort them to come constantly to church morning and evening, every day, and in no way to forsake it on any account, but to assemble together continually.... For it is not only spoken concerning the priests but let every one of the laity listen to it as concerning himself ... Be not careless of yourselves, neither deprive the Savior of His own members, neither divide his Body nor disperse His members ... but assemble yourselves together every day, morning and evening, singing psalms and praying in the Lord's house; in the morning saying the sixty-second psalm, and in the evening the hundred-fortieth, but principally on the Sabbath day. And on the day of our Lord's resurrection, which is the Lord's Day, meet more diligently, sending praise to God that made the universe by Jesus, and sent Him to us, and allowed Him to suffer, and raised Him from the dead. Otherwise what apology will he make to God who does not assemble on that day to hear the saving word concerning the resurrection, on which we pray three times, standing in memory of Him who arose in three days, in which is performed the reading of the prophets, the preaching of the Gospel and the oblation of the sacrifice, the gift of the holy food? (ibid 422).

Furthermore He says to them: I will not abide your new moons and your Sabbaths (Isa. 1:13). You see what He means: the present Sabbaths are not acceptable to me, but that Sabbath which I have made, in which, after giving rest to all things, I will make the beginning of the eighth day, that is, the beginning of another world. Therefore we also celebrate with joy the eighth day on which Jesus also rose from the dead, was made manifest, and ascended into heaven. (Text: SC 172.186).

Thus, as I already stated, God speaks through Malachi, one of the twelve prophets, concerning the sacrifices you then offered up to Him: I have no pleasure in you, said the Lord, and I will not receive your sacrifices at your hands. For from the rising of the sun even to its going down my name is great among the Gentiles, said the Lord, but you profane it (Mal. 1:10-12). By making reference to the sacrifices that we Gentiles offer to Him everywhere, the Eucharistic bread and the Eucharistic chalice, He predicted that we should glorify His name, but that you should profane it. Furthermore, the precept of circumcision, obliging you without fail to circumcise your sons on the eighth day, was a type of the true circumcision by which we are circumcised from error and wickedness through our Lord Jesus Christ who arose from the dead on the first day of the week. For the first day of the week, while it remains the first of all days, yet is called the eighth, according to the number of all the days of the cycle, and still it remains the first. (PG 6.564).

This mother they also call Ogdoad, Sophia, Terra, Jerusalem, Holy Spirit, and with a masculine reference, Lord. Her place of habitation is an intermediate one, above the Demiurge indeed, but below and outside of the Pleroma, even to the end. (Text: SC 264.32).

I have become to Him a thing ... completed according to the type; I have come into being on the eighth day which is the Day of the Lord. But the whole completion of the completion you will see through the redemption that has happened to me and you will see me. (Text: SC 264.170).

By the meadow (cf. Plato, Republic X. 616B) is to be understood the fixed sphere as being a peaceful and congenial spot and the place of the saints; and by the seven days the motions of the seven planets, and every art and operation which strives to attain its true end in rest. But after the wandering world the journey leads to heaven, that is to the eighth motion and the eighth day.

Those who have advanced to Gnostic perfection are at rest in the holy will of God, in the celestial church in which are gathered the philosophers of God who do not remain in the rest of the Hebdomad, but by the active beneficence of assimilation to God are promoted to the heritage of beneficence of the Ogdoad, and thereby are devoted to the pure vision of insatiable contemplation. (Text: ibid. 433).

And the third word is the one which indicates that the world was created by God, and that He gave us the seventh day for rest, because of life's troubles. For God is incapable of weariness and suffering and want. But we who bear flesh need rest. Therefore the seventh day is proclaimed a day of rest — separation from evils — preparing for the primal day, our true rest, which, in truth, is the first creation of light, in which all things are seen and possessed. From this day we are illuminated by wisdom and knowledge.... For the light of truth, a true light casting no shadow, is the Spirit of God invisibly apportioned to all who are sanctified by faith, holding the place of a luminary as a guide to the knowledge of real existence. By following him through our whole lives we become impassible, and this is to rest.... Having reached this point we must mention these things incidentally, since the discourse has turned on 'the seventh' and 'the eighth'. For the eighth may turn out to be properly the seventh, and the seventh manifestly the sixth, and this latter properly the Sabbath, and the seventh a day of work. For the creation of the world was concluded in six days. For the motion of the sun from solstice to solstice is completed in six months, in the course of which, at one time the leaves fall, and at another plants bud and seeds come to maturity.... The Pythagoreans reckon six the perfect number from the creation of the world: ... just as marriage generates from male and female, so six is generated from the odd number three, which is called the masculine number, and the even number two, which is considered the feminine, for twice three are six.... Rightly, then, the number seven is reckoned to be motherless and childless, for figuratively it expresses the nature of Sabbath rest, in which they neither marry nor are given in marriage (Mk. 12:25). And they call eight a cube, counting the fixed sphere along with the seven revolving ones, by which is produced 'the great year,' as a kind of period of recompense of what has been promised.... Thus, man is said to have been made on the sixth day ... so as straightway to receive the rest of the Lord's inheritance. Some such thing also is indicated by the sixth hour in the scheme of salvation, in which man was perfected: for just as there are seven intervals in eight and seven thereby glorifies eight, so too the heavens declare the glory of God (Ps. 19:1).... (Text: GCS 2.501).

Again, not understanding the meaning of the words, And God ended on the sixth day His works which He had made, and ceased on the seventh day from all the works which He had made; and God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it He had ceased from all His works which He had begun to make (Gen. 2:2-3) ... and imagining the expression He ceased on the seventh day to be the same as He rested on the seventh day Celsus makes the remark, 'After this He is weary, indeed, like a very bad workman who is in need of rest to refresh himself.' For Celsus knows nothing of the day of the Sabbath and God's rest which follows the completion of the creation of the world, and which lasts during the duration of the world, and in which all those who will keep festival with God who have in turn done all their works in their six days and who, because they have omitted none of their duties will ascend to the contemplation (of heavenly things) and to the assembly of righteous and blessed things. (Text: SC 147.330).

Thus we all look to the East when we pray but few of us know that we are seeking our old country, Paradise, which God planted in Eden in the East (Gen. 2:8). We pray standing, n the first day of the week, but we do not all know the reason. On the day of the resurrection, rising up we remind ourselves of the grace given to us by standing at prayer, not only because we rose with Christ and are bound to seek those things which are above (Col. 3:1), but because the day seems to us to be somehow an image of the age which we await wherefore, though it is 'the beginning of days' it is not called by Moses 'first', but 'one'. For he says, there was evening and there was morning, one day (Gen. 1:5.), as though the same day often recurred. Now 'one' and 'eight' are the same, in itself distinctly indicating that really 'one' and 'eight' of which the Psalmist makes mention in certain titles of the psalms, the state which follows after this present time, the day which knows no waning or eventide, and no successor, that age which ends not or grows old. Of necessity, then, the Church teaches her foster-children to offer their prayers on that day standing so that through a continual reminder of the endless life we may not neglect to make provision for our passing on to that place. (Text: SC 17 bis. 484).

The title, 'For the secret' proposes accurate diligence to us In our knowledge of God. For the worst fate of the soul is false And erring perceptions about God (for what use does one Derive from any good if one does not have goodness itself?).

Accordingly the title proffers you a torch to illuminate the secrets of the knowledge of God, the sum total of which is faith in the Son. For the title says 'for the secrets of the Son', for that is truly a secret, and is impervious to thought or sight, in that it far transcends human comprehension but the one who approaches with faith will be the first to reach the goal of victory. The meaning of the title, "For the Inheritor" is obvious. For the prophet pours forth to God this prayer for the soul which has departed from its inheritance when the sun has been allowed to go down on its transgression of God's commandment, that the morning sun will again dispel the darkness and that he shall deserve to hear those sweet words addressed to those on the right, Come, you blessed of my father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the constitution of the world (Mt. 25:34).... And one would not err if one attached the same meaning to the title, 'For the morning undertaking'. For Scripture is in the habit of calling the dawn 'morning'. Dawn is the boundary of night and day, ending one and beginning the other. Scripture often enigmatically calls evil 'darkness,' so that when through the help of divine grace we undertake the life of virtue we then come to victory, laying aside the works of darkness and walking honorably as in the daytime as the Apostle says (Rom. 13:13). The title 'for the Octave' is close in meaning to what we have explained. For all the care shown in the life that is cultivating virtue is directed to the future life. Its beginning is called the Ogdoad, and is the successor of this earthly time, which is enclosed in the Hebdomad. The title, 'For the Octave,' then, urges us not to look to this present time, but rather to look forward to the Ogdoad. For when this fluid and mutable state of time ceases, in which one thing is born and another perishes, and there will be no further need for things to be born or to perish, the hope of resurrection will change our nature into another order of life and the passing nature of time will cease together with the activities of birth and decay. Then Hebdomad will completely cease as a measurement of time and the Ogdoad will succeed which is the future age comprehending3 single day, as one of the prophets says, who has named the l»e we hope for the great day (Joel 2:11). That day will not be illumined by this visible sun of ours, but rather by the true 1 ht the sun of justice, who is called the Rising Sun by the prophet (Zech. 6:12) for the reason that it will never be veiled in settings. (Text: PG 44.504).

However, the Lord's Day was not made known to Jews but to Christians by the resurrection of the Lord, and from that event it began to acquire its solemnity. Doubtless, the souls of all the saints prior to the resurrection of the body enjoy repose, but they do not possess that activity which gives power to risen bodies. (Text: PL 33. 215).

It is the eighth day which symbolizes that activity, which is also the first, because it does not destroy that rest but glorifies it. The limitations of the body do not rise with the body, which is free from corruption; for this corruptible body must put on incorruption and this mortal body must put on immortality (1 Cor. 15:53). And so, before the resurrection of the Lord, although this mystery of the eighth day by which the resurrection is symbolized was not concealed from the holy Patriarchs, filled as they were with the spirit of prophecy, it was locked up, and hidden, and taught only as the Sabbath observance. As example we have the psalm written for the octave (PS. 6) and children circumcised on the eighth day. In Ecclesiastes it is used to signify the two Testaments: Give a portion to seven and also to eight (Eccles. 11:2).

Before the Lord's resurrection there was rest for the dies no resurrection for none: Rising from the dead He dies no more; death has no more domination over Him (Rom. 6-9). But after such resurrection had taken place in the Lord's body, so that the head of the Church might foreshadow what the body of the Church hopes for at the end, then the Lord's Day — that is the eighth which is also the first — began to be observed. The reason also is understood why, in observing the Pasch, they were ordered to kill and eat a sheep, since it plainly prefigured the Passion of the Lord, but they were not commanded to see that a sabbath coincided with the month of new corn and with the third week of the moon: so that the Lord might signalize that same day by His Passion, who had also come to announce the Lord's Day, the eighth, which is also the first.

We therefore accept spiritually and hold spiritually what has been written about the Sabbath which simply means rest; but we already have our rest, our true Sabbath in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Redeemer ... our Sabbath. Therefore ... on the Lord's Day there should be a ceasing from earthly toil and attention given in every way to prayer and contemplation ... on the day of the resurrection. (Text: PL 77.1255=NPNF 13.92).

Seven multiplied by seven gives fifty, if you add one, which, according to the tradition coming from the authority of the ancients, prefigures the future age; this day is itself alway8 the eighth and the first, nay rather it is always unique, that is the Lord's Day. (Text: PL 83.769).

They no longer observe the Jewish Sabbath, but keep holy the Lord's Day on which through Him and through His death our life rose up. (Text:SC 10.88).

And on the so-called day of the Sun those who live in the cities or in the country assemble in one place and the writings of the prophets are read for as long as time permits ... This Sunday is the day on which we assemble, for it is the first day on which God, when He changed darkness and matter, made the world, and the day on which Jesus Christ our Savior rose from the dead. They crucified Him on the day before the day of Saturn and on the following day which is the day of the Sun, He appeared to His apostles and disciples and taught them what I now pass on to you. (Text: PG 6.429).

But, if all nations are blessed in Christ, and we who are from all nations believe in Him, then He is the Christ, and we are they who are blessed through Him. It is written that God once allowed the sun to be worshipped (cf. Deut. 4:19), and yet you cannot discover anyone who ever suffered death because of his faith in the sun. But you can find men of every nationality who, for the name of Jesus, have suffered, and still suffer, all kinds of torments rather than deny their faith in Him. For His word of truth and wisdom is more blazing and bright than the might of the sun, and it penetrates the very depths of the heart and mind. Thus Scripture says: His name shall arise above the sun (Ps. 72:17), and Zacharias affirms: The East is His name (Zach. 6:12; Text: ibid. 757=FOTC 6.335).

Others, it must be admitted, suppose the sun to be the god of the Christians, for it is a well-known fact that when we pray we face the east, and that we celebrate Sunday as a day of festivity. And what about it? Do you not do the very same? Do not many of you, with an affectation of worshipping the celestial deities, also move your lips while facing toward the rising sun? After all, it is you yourselves who have introduced the sun into the calendar of the week; and you have chosen its day (Sunday) in preference to the preceding day (Saturn's-day) as the most fitting one in the entire week, for either a total abstinence from bathing, or for its postponement until the evening, or for taking a rest and for banqueting. In resorting to such customs, you consciously deviate from your own religious rites and follow those of strangers. For the Jewish feasts are the Sabbath and the Purification, and Jewish too are the ceremonies of the lamps and the fasts from unleavened bread. All these practices and rites are indeed foreign to your gods. Wherefore, returning now from this digression, you who reproach us with the sun and with Sunday should first consider your proximity to us. For we are not far removed from your Saturn and days of rest. (Text; PL 1.579).

For us, dearly beloved brethren, there are in addition to the times of prayer observed by all, new times that are more meaningful.... For we must pray in the morning that the resurrection of the Lord may thus be celebrated by morning prayer. The Holy Spirit proclaimed this of old, when in the psalms He spoke: O my king and my God. For to thee will I pray: O Lord, in the morning thou shall hear my voice. In the morning I will stand before thee, and I will see thee (Ps. 5:3) And again, through the mouth of the Prophet the Lord says: At dawn they will be on watch for me, saying: let us go down and return to the Lord our God (cf. Hos. 6:1). Likewise, at the setting of the sun and at the end of the day there must again be prayer. For since Christ is the True Sun and the True Day, as the sun and day of the world recede, we pray and petition for the light to come upon us again when we pray for the coming of Christ to provide us with the grace of eternal light. Moreover, the Holy Spirit in the psalms declares that Christ is called the day. He says: This is the day which the Lord has made; let us exalt and rejoice therein (Ps. 118:24). Likewise, Malachias the prophet gives witness that He is called the Sun, when He says: But unto you who fear my name, the Sun of Justice shall arise, and healing is in His wings (Mal. 4:2). Thus if in the Scriptures Christ is called the True Sun and the True Day, no hour is excepted for Christians, in which God should be adored often and always, so that we who are in Christ, that is, in the True Sun and in the True Day, should be constant throughout the entire day in our petitions and prayers; and when, by the laws of the world, the revolving night, recurring in its alternate changes, succeeds, there can be no danger from the nocturnal shades for those who pray, because to the sons of light even in the night there is day. For when is he without light-who has the light in his heart? Or when does he not have the sun and the day, to whom Christ is Sun and Day?

Hail O Light! For in us who are buried in darkness, and imprisoned in the shadow of death, light has come forth from imp en purer than that of the sun and sweeter than life here blow This light is eternal life for all those who share in it. But the night fears the light, and hiding itself in terror it makes way for the Day of the Lord. This is the light that never sleeps, the light that hovers over all, and the West has come round to the East. This Light is Christ, the Sun of Righteousness. (Text: SC 2.182).

It is not only the believer who will be judged impartially before the tribunal of heaven. The same holds good for the heathen. For, since God knew, by means of His foreknowledge, that the heathen would not believe, nevertheless, in order that it might redound to His own perfection, He gave him philosophy before giving him Faith. And He gave him the sun and the moon and the stars to worship, as the Law itself tells us (cf. Deut. 1.19) that the heathen would not become completely atheistic and perish in this condition. But they have taken leave of their senses and have worshipped graven images, and thus they will be judged according to this commandment, unless they repent: some of them deliberately rejected any belief in God; others though they did have the desire to believe, yet they did not take the trouble to do so. There were also those, who having worshipped the heavenly bodies first, did not return to worship the maker of them. For this worship of the heavenly bodies was the road which was given to the heathen by which they could rise up to the worship of the true God. But there were those who were not content with the worship of these heavenly bodies which were assigned to them and so they went their own way and worshipped stocks and stones and thus were counted as chaff and as a drop from the bucket (Isa. 40:15;. Text:GCS 2.487).

He also ordained that one day should be set aside as a special day for prayer: I mean that which is truly the first and chief of all, the day of our Lord and Savior. The care of his entire household was entrusted to deacons and other ministers consecrated to the service of God: ... and his body guard,.... found in their emperor and instructor in the practice of piety-and like him held the Lord's salutary day in honor, and performed on that day the devotions which he loved. The same observance was recommended by this blessed prince to al classes of his subjects: his earnest desire being gradually to lea all mankind to the worship of God. Accordingly he enjoin6 on all the subjects of the Roman empire to observe the Lord's Day, as a day of rest, and also to honor the day which precedes the Sabbath, in memory, I suppose, of what the Savior of mankind is recorded to have achieved on that day. And since his desire was to teach his whole army zealously to honor the Savior's day (which derives its name from light, and from the sun) he freely granted to those among them who were partakers of the divine faith, leisure for attendance on the services of the Church of God, in order that they might be able to perform their religious worship. (Text: PG 20.1165).

"With regard to those who were as yet ignorant of divine truth, he provided by a second statute that they should appear on each Lord's Day on an open plain near the city, and there, at a given signal, offer to God with one accord a prayer which they had previously learnt. He admonished them that their confidence should not rest in their spears, or armor, or bodily strength, but that they should acknowledge the supreme God as the giver of every good and of victory itself; to whom they were bound to offer their prayers with due regularity, uplifting their hands toward heaven, and raising their mental vision higher still to the King of heaven, on whom they should call as the Author of victory, their Preserver, Guardian, and Helper. The emperor himself prescribed the prayer to be used by all his troops. (Text: ibid. 1168).

The Day of the Lord, or the Day of the Resurrection, is indeed the true day of every Christian: for this reason it is called the Lord's Day, because on that day the Lord ascended triumphant to the Father. And if this day is called Sunday by the pagans, we too are most ready to confess that today the Light of the World has risen, that today the Sun of Justice has risen. (Text: CCL 78.550).

From these and similar notions there arise forms of impiety in which the sun is worshipped at the break of day from some elevated place. Even Christians are not immune from such a practice; indeed they believe that they are acting m good conscience, when on arrival at the doors of St. Peters Basilica, which is dedicated to the One, Living and True God, having ascended the steps which lead up to the open place, they turn around, face toward the rising sun, and bending their heads give honor to the shining orb with a reverential bow. For a long time we have deplored this custom and it has grieved us greatly. It is due partly to ignorance and partly to the influence of paganism. For even if these latter venerate the Creator of this beauteous light, more than the light itself which is but a creature, yet we must abstain from even the appearance of such a rite; which should any one who has abandoned the worship of idols find among us, will he too not hold on to this part of his former belief as credible, which he observes to be common to Christian as well as to pagan. (Text. PL 54.218).

"Notice that we read in Proverbs: A wise man continues as the sun, but a fool is changed as the moon (Sir. 27:ll) and who then is the wise man who continues but the Sun of Justice of whom it is said: The Sun of Justice is risen unto me? (Mal. 4:2). But the wicked upon whom He has not risen shall weep and say on that last day: The light of justice has not shined upon us and the sun has not risen upon us (Wis. 5:6). For, God has made the sun visible to fleshy eyes, to shine upon the good and the bad, who also, rains upon the just and the unjust (Mt. 5:45). But appropriate comparisons of invisible things are often drawn from visible ones. Who then is the fool who is changed as the moon but Adam, in whom all have sinned (Rom. 5:12)?

Nevertheless ... it should not be supposed that those luminaries are to be adored which are used as parables to symbolize divine mysteries — such comparisons are taken from all created things... For Just as we do not adore domestic animals, although He is called a lamb (Jn. 1:29) or a calf (Ezek. 43:19); nor wild beasts because He is called a lion of the tribe of Judah (Apoc. 5:5); nor stones because they are figures of Christ, nor Mount Sion because it is the figure of the Church, so neither do we adore the sun nor the moon, although from these heavenly bodies ... we draw symbols of the mysteries and thereby increase our mystical knowledge. We make use of these things as symbols to illustrate the mysteries of the word of God. We make use of parables formulated with reverent devotion to illustrate our religion; likewise we have no hesitation in using the visible creation for the same purpose, the winds, the sea, the earth, as in the administration of the sacraments we use, with Christian liberty, but with necessary reserve, water, wheat, wine and oil. If, however, allegories are taken not only from the heavens and the stars, but also from lower creation and are adapted to the administration of the sacraments, they thus become a type of language of redemption fitted to win the affection of the hearers from the visible to the invisible, from the corporeal to the spiritual and from the temporal to the eternal. (Text: PL 33.208).

And just as the dawn is an image of the day ... and its light begins to dispel the darkness of the night, so too there dawns on those who sit in darkness a day of knowledge and of truth: thus in keeping with the manner of the sun's rising, prayers are offered while looking toward the sunrise in the East. It was for this reason that those very ancient temples looked toward the West so that the worshippers might turn to the East when facing the images. (Text:GSC 3.32).

Thus we all look towards the East at our hours of prayer but few of us realize that we are seeking our lost land ... Paradise, which God planted in Eden in the East. Similarly on the first day of the week we pray standing; yet few of us are aware of the reason ... on the day of the resurrection (which in Greek means standing again) we stand again in expectation of the age which is contained in this symbol for the day is an image of eternity: We do not stand simply because we rose with Christ to seek the things that are above. (Text: PG 32.192).

But when we turn towards the East we do so because our first homeland is in the East; we do not turn to the East as if God were only to be contemplated there, for He who is everywhere is not particularly apprehended in any part since He comprises all things equally. (Text:PG 44.1184).

The day was almost done and the sun was beginning to set, but her zeal in no way declined. Rather as she approached the end and saw more clearly the beauty of the Bridegroom she seemed to rush toward the one she desired with even greater desire; no longer did she speak to those of us who were present; she spoke only to the One toward whom she gazed with steadfast look. She was turned towards the East and ... spoke only to Him ... then, evening came and the lamp was brought in, and Macrina turned towards the beam of light ... forth' night prayer, and with the prayer her life came to an end. (Text: PG 46.984).

Address him as personally present and with arm outstretched say: 'I renounce you, Satan.' Allow me to explain the reason of your facing West, for you should know it. Because the West is the region of visible darkness, Satan, who is himself darkness, has his empire in darkness — that is the significance of your looking steadily towards the West while you renounce that gloomy prince of night... then ... God's Paradise opens before you that Eden, planted in the East, from which for his transgressions our first father was banished. Symbolic of this is your facing about from the West to the East, the place of light. It is at this point that you were told to say: 'I believe in the Father, and in the Son, and in the Holy Spirit.' (Text: PG 33.1068=FOTC 64.155).

When you gather the faithful together in the Church of God, act as a pilot of a great ship. With prudence and wit"1 discipline regulate the assembly, commanding the deacons like sailors, so that the faithful, embarking on this ship, may v directed to their proper place. And concerning the church itself, see to it that it is built facing in the direction of the East, and that it has vestries on both sides at the East so that it will resemble a ship. (Text: Funk 1.159=ANF 7.421).

The ecclesiastical manner of speaking for the days of the k is more fitting on Christian lips. But if habit has perhaps led anyone to let slip from his tongue, by chance, what he disapproves of in his heart, let him understand that all those, from whom the days of the week derive their names, were mere men, and because of certain benefits accruing to mortals, because they were very powerful and eminent in this world, divine honors were bestowed upon them by their followers, in such wise that these latter named the days and the heavenly bodies after them. First the heavenly bodies were called after the names of men, and the days from the heavenly bodies. The 'feriae' were so called from 'fando,' that is, 'speaking,' because there is a time for speaking in both divine and human services. Those established for men are called 'holidays (dies festi) while those for divine services are called 'holy-days' (feriati; Text: PL 82.216).

At night, the King offers his sacrifices to Marduk and Ishtar; on the seventh day to Belith and Nergal; on the fourteenth to Ninib and Gula, and the nineteenth (representing a week of weeks from the first of the previous month) to Samsch, Belith-Matati, Sin and Belith-ile; on the twenty-first to Ea and on the twenty-eighth to Belith-ile; he pours out the offering of the sacrifice and his prayer is accepted by the god. (Text: N. Denis-Boulet, The Christian Calendar, 16).

'This last charge is what surprises us,' replied Trypho... for you do not keep the feasts or Sabbaths.... You place your hope in a crucified man, and still expect to receive favors from God when you disregard His commandments....'

'Trypho,' I began, 'there never will be, nor has there been from eternity, any other God except Him who create and formed the universe. Furthermore we do not claim that our God is different from yours, for He is God who, win, strong hand and outstretched arm, led your forefathers out the land of Egypt. Nor have we placed our trust in any other (for, indeed there is no other), but only in Him whom you also have trusted, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob But, our hope is not through Moses or through the Law otherwise our customs would be the same as yours....'

In Christ an everlasting covenant and final law has been given to us.... Concerning this New Covenant, God thin spoke through Jeremias: Behold the days shall come, said the Lord, and I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Juda: not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt (Jer. 31:31). II therefore, God predicted that He would make a new covenant and this for a light to the nations, and we see and are convinced that, through the name of the crucified Jesus Christ, men haw turned to God ... and have practiced piety even unto death then everyone can clearly see from these deeds ... that He is indeed the New Law, the New Covenant, and the expectation of those who, from every nation, have awaited the blessings God. We have been led to God through this crucified Christ, and we are the true spiritual Israel, and the descendants Judah, Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham....

The New Law demands that we observe a perpetual Sabbath, whereas you consider yourselves pious when you refrain from work on one day out of the week, and in doing so you don't understand the real meaning of that precept...

We, too, would observe ... your Sabbath days, and, in a word, all your festivals, if we were not aware of the reason why they were imposed upon you. . .

The observance of the Sabbaths was imposed upon you by God so that you would be forced to remember Him, as Himself said: That you may know that I am God, your Savior (Ex. 20:20)...

Before Moses t